Re-engineering Assessment Practices in Higher Education

Institutional Approaches to Embedding Peer Review

The success of peer review and peer feedback requires that these processes become a core part of the undergraduate curriculum if the benefits for learning are to be realised. One instance of peer review in a course or programme is unlikely to yield benefits as students will need time to adapt to this new way of learning and have enough experience to derive benefits. Hence peer review with feedback should become a regular component of the curriculum. There are already some examples of HE institutions using peer review more widely. The following is one example. More will follow. Please get in touch if you would like your institution to be represented.

University of Texas A&M

In the attached slides, Dr Wendy Keeney-Kennicut explains the use at her institution of a tool called Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) that was developed at UCLA and which enables students to learn by writing and peer critiquing. Texas A&M have been promoting peer review since 2002 initially in natural sciences and mathematics. However, Wendy reports that over the last 3 years 15300 students in 545 assignments led by 368 instructors have engaged in peer review using CPR sofware across a wide range of disciplines. The slides outline the usage and how peer review is supported across the institution and provide tips about how to get started and the problems to avoid. Statistical data about the benefits to learning are also provided.